1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a chain of storage pouches, and more particularly to a combination of two or more pouches joined in a chain in a manner that provides improved human, mechanical, and automated storage and access to pouch labeling and to pouch contents.
2. Description of Related Art
Portfolios, cases, folders, and large envelopes (collectively, “envelopes”) are used widely in offices or business operations. Generally, an envelope is made of plastic material and has a rear wall and a front wall; the front and rear walls are often made of transparent material and are connected to each other on or near the edges of three sides thereof, leaving an open, top side between the front plate and the rear plate so as to receive papers, documents, or other contents therein. Envelopes may be manufactured, or assembled by end users, into a linked series of envelopes to provide a particular utility, e.g., to enable easier insertion and retrieval of envelope contents, to reduce misplacement of an envelope, to facilitate identification and retrieval of a particular envelope, etc. The method of linking a series of envelopes typically limits the ways in which the series of envelopes can be manipulated, such as modes of display, of contents insertion, and of retrieval of inserted contents. Manipulation modes are described in detail below. If envelopes are linked to improve identification of one envelope out of a series when the linked envelopes are placed in a drawer or hung as a cascade of envelopes, then other modes of display and use, e.g., fanning, are typically compromised. Similarly, envelopes linked to facilitate handling by humans are often less suited for mechanical or automated handling means. Finally, existing designs for linked envelopes are typically optimized for a given type of envelope contents, e.g., paper documents, discs, or diskettes.
Various functional modes for display and storage of thin, planar articles have been used in prior art inventions. These envelopes may be described as having expandable and/or extendable displays and operate in modes described as accordion-like, fan-like, parallel, and paging modes. Several previous inventions have the ability to display in more than a single mode, for example, a combination of parallel and paging. Structurally, various techniques have been used to achieve these means. All have required a fairly complex manufacturing process to cut components to size, to fold to shape, and to attach pieces to assemble a chained pouches system.
The present invention provides a combination of two or more pouches joined in a chain in a manner that provides improved human, mechanical, or automated access to pouch labeling and to pouch contents. Unlike the related art, the present invention provides in a single storage system paging, tipping/fan, accordion, parallel, push down, reverse parallel, and pull up modes of display and access. The chained pouches of the present invention can be made to accommodate planar contents (e.g., paper documents, discs, and diskettes) or non-planar contents (small parts, small tools, pills, gels, powders, etc.) Moreover, an entire series of chained pouches, optionally including a wrap-around cover, can be manufactured from a single continuous sheet of flexible material. The inventor knows of no related art that provides all of these modes of storage, display and access, the ability to accommodate planar and non-planar contents, and ease of manufacture.